February 28/2014

The fourth cruise has begun very nicely. It is a calm sunny day and we began it with our usual room service breakfast. Imade was not our waiter which was disappointing. But the new waiter was friendly enough. The strawberries are not great but the raspberries are wonderful. Ken had his breakfast sandwich but he said it was not hot.

Before long it was time to head up to Skywalkers for the meet and greet. There was a very nice turnout and all but one of the couples from the River Tubing excursion checked it. There were about 40 people there I guess and we had a visit from JJ the cruise director. He informed us that because of Daylight Savings Time we would not get back the hour we lost last night.

He also let us know that we are one of the 4 ships that will not be getting coverage of the Oscars. That bummed out some of the people but it didn’t bother me.

The exciting news that he had was about Aruba. Apparently only one of the Caribbean Islands celebrates Mardi Gras and has a big celebration for Carnival and that is Aruba. There will be a big parade and lots of festivities taking place on Sunday when we are in Port. So we have changed our plans. We will not be heading out to a beach. We will take in the festivities and hope to get a lot of wonderful pictures. I must make certain that my battery is fully charged.

After the meet and greet Ken picked up some fruit from the buffet and that is what we had for lunch.

I went to the art auction again this afternoon. It was fun and I won another prize.

Then I finished the afternoon by do some e-mail and some cleaning and before we knew it time had come to get ready for dinner.

This time all was well and our proper group was at the table. After dinner we went to the Art Gallery because I had to choose what I wanted for my raffle prizes. It is hard to call it a prize when you have to pay 50.00 to ship them home in a tube or 300.00 to have them framed and shipped. I will ship them home in a tube and then decide what to do with them. They are really quite lovely so we will see. He says that by not spending the money to frame them they will probably end up in the tube under the bed. Perhaps he is right.

Next we stopped at the Piazza deck 5 and watched an amazing balancing act. It was Lobo and Lucy. His sense of balance was uncanny. You cannot believe what you are seeing.

  After that we went to the Princess Theatre. The act tonight was a mentalist. His name is Brent Webb. I know I use the word amazing far too often but he was truly amazing. I can never believe what I have just seen when I go to see a mentalist. You know there is a way these things are done but you sure can’t figure out how.

Our last stop for the evening was back at the International Café for our usual night cap. It was not too busy and we were able to visit with another couple. We did not exchange names but we did chat for about a half hour. By then it was almost eleven so we called it a night and headed up to our room.

A good beginning for number four!!